The twilight language explores hidden meanings and synchromystic connections via onomatology (study of names) and toponymy (study of place names). This blog further investigates "name games" and "number coincidences" found in news and history. Examinations are also found in my book The Copycat Effect (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004).

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Human Earthquakes

This is the scene aboard American Airlines Flight 1561 from Chicago, just ten minutes before arrival at San Francisco's airport, when a Yemeni man attempted to storm the flight's cockpit.

During the last few days, you may have noticed that people are beginning to share questions like, "Is there something in the air?" or "What's in the water?"Comments such as those usually alert us to the fact there seems to be a strange trend in the news reflecting outbursts of human behavior or what I like to call, "human earthquakes."There definitely are periods when humans appear to repeat patterns so similar that the copycat effect, behavior contagion, or some mysterious seismic forces seem to be at play. Are we in such a period?First, let us mention the prediction for a massive earthquake occurring today, May 11, 2011.

Raffaele Bendani, an Italian seismologist, forecast in 1915 that a large earthquake would hit Rome on May 11, 2011. (Or will it happen on Friday, May 13th?)Why should people pay attention to Bendani's prediction? Well, of course, because he was right before. He predicted the earthquake of January 13, 1915, which killed 30,000 people in Avezzano. In 1923, he predicted an earthquake would hit central Italy on January 2, 1924. He was only off by two days. He also forecast the quake of May 6, 1976, in Friuli, which killed 1,000 and left another 45,000 homeless.

An update: Late news reports on May 11th, say a 5.3 earthquake causing eight fatalities hit Spain. See here.

As the earthquake struck yesterday, there was a sigh of relief in Rome, whose residents had mounted a mass evacuation following claims of a 1915 prediction by Mr Bendandi that the “big one” would wipe out the Eternal City on May 11, 2011….“There is absolutely no link between Spain and Italy, geologically, or with the prediction of an earthquake in Rome,” said the Italian National Institute of Geology and Vulcanology.

“The earthquake in Spain was not very strong in itself, but it was close to the surface,” said Alberto Michelini, a seismologist at the institute. “The quake happened on the coast, a zone which has not had strong quakes in the past. It is close, however, to the point where the Eurasian plate meets the African plate,” he added.

Meanwhile, what about the human earthquakes?

What is remarkable is the rather high number of incidents of strange human bizarre behaviors of late. Such outbursts are often associated, in the public mind and media, with some form of lunacy, i.e. as if they are caused by the full moon, the new moon, an alignment of planets, or earthquake activity (which, in turn, is blamed on the moon/planets, as well).The following is a quick roundup of some of these recent incidents.The one that received the most media notice involved an event that appeared to remind people of the 9/11 scenarios, and, indeed, was frightening to those abroad the involved flight. Rageit Almurisi, 29, a Yemeni man screamed "Allah Akbar" as he stormed the flight's cockpit. He banged on the cockpit door on American Airlines Flight 1561 from Chicago, just ten minutes before the jet was due to land on Sunday night, May 8, 2011. A flight attendant tackled the man to the floor, and the attendant was soon assisted by other passengers.

The incident was another scare during a weekend that saw several similar ones for Americanair passengers and followed a number of security alerts at bus and train stations and airports across America, following the death of Osama Bin Laden:

A man slipped into the PATH tunnel at the World Trade Center in New York and walked all the way to Jersey before saying he had left a bomb in the tunnel;

A gunman who shot two Houston officers outside a downtown Greyhound bus depot was confirmed dead;

Police blocked off several streets in the Bronx, New York, as the NYPD bomb squad investigated a parked SUV;

The Mockingbird DART station and the surrounding area in Dallas, Texas, were evacuated on Saturday after a police dog alerted authorities to suspicious packages;

Four people were arrested at Denver International Airport after staff noticed someone videotaping security lines;

A 34-year-old Illinois man went berserk aboard Continental Airlines Boeing 737 from Houston to Chicago and tried to open the door at 35,000ft, but a Vietnam veteran and martial arts expert tackled him from behind;

A Delta Air Lines flight from Detroit to San Diego was diverted to Albuquerque, New Mexico, after a flight attendant found a note in the lavatory with the word "bomb." FBI agents ushered the passengers and crew to safety;

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About Me

Investigator of human and animal mysteries since 1960. Swamp Thing character "Coleman Wadsworth" in #4:7 and more in #4:8, is a tribute.
Author of over 35 books, including The Unidentified (1975), Mysterious America (1983/2007), Suicide Clusters (1987), Cryptozoology A to Z (1999), Bigfoot! (2003), The Copycat Effect (2004), and field guides.
Educated in anthropology-zoology at SIU-Carbondale, and psychiatric social work at Simmons College School of Social Work. Began doctoral work in anthropology (Brandeis University) and family violence (UNH). Taught at NE universities (1980 to 2003), while concurrently a senior researcher at the Muskie School (1983 to 1996), before retiring to write, lecture, consult, & open museum. Popular documentary course was taught for 23 semesters; appeared on C2C, The Larry King Show, MonsterQuest, Lost Tapes, In Search Of, and other tv programs.
Loren Coleman is a dedicated father (Caleb, Malcolm, Des), cryptozoologist, media consultant, and baseball fan.